from "The Princess" by Lord Alfred Tennyson

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend September 13, 2014   from “The Princess”   Lord Alfred Tennyson

Come down, O maid, from yonder mountain height: What pleasure lives in height (the shepherd sang), In height and cold, the splendour of the hills? But cease to move so near the Heavens, and cease To glide a sunbeam by the blasted Pine, To sit a star upon the sparkling spire; And come, for Love is of the valley, come, For Love is of the valley, come thou down And find him; by the happy threshold, he, Or hand in hand with Plenty in the maize, Or red with spirted purple of the vats, Or foxlike in the vine; nor cares to walk With Death and Morning on the silver horns, Nor wilt thou snare him in the white ravine, Nor find him dropt upon the firths of ice, That huddling slant in furrow-cloven falls To roll the torrent out of dusky doors: But follow; let the torrent dance thee down To find him in the valley; let the wild Lean-headed Eagles yelp alone, and leave The monstrous ledges there to slope, and spill Their thousand wreaths of dangling water-smoke That like a broken purpose waste in air: So waste not thou; but come; for all the vales Await thee; azure pillars of the hearth Arise to thee; the children call, and I Thy shepherd pipe, and sweet is every sound, Sweeter thy voice, but every sound is sweet; Myriads of rivulets hurrying thro’ the lawn, The moan of doves is immemorial elms, And murmuring of innumerable bees.            This poem is in the public domain. About This Poem   This excerpt was originally published in Tennyson’s The Princess; A Medley (H. S. King and co., 1874).   Lord Alfred Tennyson was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1805. He was a songwriter, playwright, and poet, predominantly of narrative poems like “The Lady of Shalott” and “The Princess.” He died in Sussex, England in 1892. Poetry by Tennyson   The Complete Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Delphi Classics, 2013) "The Rose of Battle" by W. B. Yeats "The Lady of Shalott" by Lord Alfred Tennyson "Landscape With a Blur of Conquerors" by Richard Siken Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038